A story series by a wannabe Fox Mulder.

Getting Spooked about odd disappearances, a UFO cult in a small Kansas town, and an ominous warning to George HW Bush channeled from ETs:

Quote:St. Peter at the Sonic Drive-In, Pt. 1

On September 20th, 1991, Russell County Sheriff Robert Balloun was dealing with an unusual case, one that he would call a “giant, mixed-up puzzle.”1 Speaking with an AP reporter on the 20th, Balloun announced that there were no solid leads in the disappearance of four women from the small Kansas town of Russell. Missing since September 9th were Donna Butts, Marcia Brock, and Brock’s two college age daughters Sonya and Stephanie. Also missing was an Ottawa, Kansas doctor by the name of Scott Corder. The only stated connection between all of these missing people was “their common belief in UFOs.”2

I remember the first time my grocery bill went over a hundred bucks.

I remember when it went over two.

For the life of me, I never expected to see it go over five hundred ... but, it did this past weekend.  Son of a bitch!!

The price of primers (those little things that set off the powder in your bullet casings) have climbed up over a hundred and fifty bucks for a thousand (or a brick). The second-to-last time I bought primers, I got them on sale at $17 a brick, and purchased them by the case. Now, I find my ass bruised from me kicking it all the time ... for not buying by the pallet at those prices. Doing so would have just been a greedy thing to do.

I used to be able to make a single bullet for between 12¢ and 14¢. That's how much a single primer costs now. Bullets (that little piece that flies through the air) have gone from 4¢ to 6¢ to upwards of 30¢. I was paying 92¢ for 300gr match grade .338. I can't even look at what those would cost these days. Glad I have enough of 'em to suit my needs.

I can't imagine what kind of a pressure cooker the cities are gonna turn into. All this inflation ... and nobody's paychecks rising with. Weird weather here too.  LOL

The rabbit eyed the figure standing in the clearing and deliberated in its own fundemental way of whether it was a danger
or not. The distance between them assured that the nose-twitching sentry could find safety in the small bolt-hole hidden
beneath the roots of the nearby tree, but still... you can never be too-attentive when it came to those who walk on their
hind legs.

Feeling a movement within her stomach, the grey doe determined her pregnancy was more important than her scrutiny of
the stationary shape wearing a large hat on its head and with a flick of her tail, vanished into the sanctuary of excavated
sandy-soil and straw. The sedate object of the rabbit's surveillance merely adjusted the strap of her satchel and continued
her amble towards the grove of contorted Mangle trees.

A solitary soaring gull told the bare-footed trespasser of the rabbit's world that she was close to her goal and doffing the
floppy item that the female bunny had found so strange, the wearer wiped her brow and smiled up at the clear-azure sky.
It was still early morning in mid-summer and the dew-kissed grass was welcoming to the little Witch from Underhill as she
passed beneath the salt-covered leaves of the Mangles and followed the faint track towards her destination.

If this waddling interloper in the grubby poncho had looked back from her trek, she would've seen where the briny waters
of the shallow bay ahead had slowed in its marination of the sabulous soil and the standard timber of Elms and Oaks
found on the Witch's usual wanderings waited like annoyed customers to take advantage of any change.

Mangle trees held sway here due to their ability to exude the salts from the seawater and hence, the shallow cove that
separated the mainland from this visitor's main objective was known as Alkali Bight.

Considering her last adventure in the cold mountains to the north, Peggy Powler felt a great relief as the dappled shade
guided the visitor through the maze of gnarled thicket to the blissfully-quiet inlet where warm calm waters lapped at the
sandy shores close to Finley Bucca's home. It was due to Myrddin the Great Wizard's assurance that the Elf would help
Peggy in obtaining the long-ago stolen book of Majick and considering the ancient tome's alleged location, the sauntering
sorceress believed she would need such assistance.

"Careful of the carrots" a small mousy voice advised jocularly as Peggy arrived at a Witch-high barrier of woven Hazel
twigs and rising up on her tip-toes to see where the cautioning articulation had come from, the unshod caller observed
a small being sitting on a stool smoking a spindle-stemmed pipe. The ears and traditional waistcoat gave it away, but
from the cheerful smile behind the puffs of smoke, Peggy believed her wander through the woods had finished and now
she could get down to business. The retrieval of the Glamour Grimoire.
..................................................

Armed with a huge human-sized mug of chicory, Finley's guest watched the middle-aged Fae till the dark earth around
the vegetables he held in high regard. Peggy's query about the different soil was remedied with an explanation of hard
work and Finley pointing towards the vehicle involved, a cracked and sagging wheelbarrow.

"It took me a whole Spring to lug this stuff in..." Finley said as his makeshift hoe re-cached the carrots back into their
neat rows. "...My old back took another season to recover from the task" he added absently and offered a grin to the
listening necromancer. Studying the Elf's willow-trellis of cucumbers, well-developed beans and the obligatory bundles
of tomatoes, Peggy could see why the fencing was needed. The furry bunnies may be an quaint additive to a whimsical
rural scene, but their voracious appetites can test the patience of even the most compassionate of gardeners.

"Yon lapins are sure te' keep yer' busy..." Peggy proposed when Finley finally finished his tending. "...A bugger te' yer'
greens, but a fine meal for a enterprisin' Elf as yer'self?" she murmured and went back to enjoying her brew. The amiable
Elf nodded without looking up from his chore and breathed agreement in his guest's opinion on the nose-wiggling enemy
beyond the hazel fence. However, a short wander away from the interlaced hurdle would have provided the sorceress
with a clue to why Finley didn't adhere to the wrath of those who cultivate succulent salad crops and an explanation to
her supper later. With a good eye, a transient may notice there were at least three rabbit snares just near his gate.
..................................................

The dog-day sun had just passed its apogee and the pair had enjoyed a meal together in the house that Finley built.
A subterranean structure that held all the niceties of a home and the ingenuity of a craftsman to exist in such sandy
conditions. A sturdy-looking door led a visitor into a shadowy corridor that heralded a large domed room ribbed with
wooden supports that wouldn't look out of place on a sailing ship.

Positioned only a stone's throw from the narrow beach where the daily tidal waters vacate the half-moon channel, Mister
Bucca's hidden residence held the ability to not only rebuff any possible seawater absorption of the surrounding terrain,
but kept out the sand that it squatted in. Peggy had guessed the walls of the large dwelling once belonged to massive
wooden barrels that were used to transport commodities by sea and maybe the Finley had acquired such containers due
to a past storm.

Nonetheless, when seeking cooperation from someone who is kind enough to not only provide food and lodging, but to also
involve themselves in something potentially dangerous to himself and his home, the Last Witch of Underhill felt it prudent
to not press her assumption further. "Yer' a lucky Fae fur' havin' such a lovely place" was all she had commented in regard
of her host's abode during their fine supper of rabbit pie and boiled potatoes. The rest of their conversation was about her
mission to recapture the book.
..................................................

It was dusk when Peggy and Finley crept quietly down through the Mangles and stepped into one of the many thin gullies
of water that perforated this end of Alkali Bight. The crouching couple waded between the tide-heaped banks where only
the hardiest of distorted trees clung on for dear-life and sought meagre nourishment through their long flexuous roots.

"Can yer' see the island frum' here, Fin?" the shape at the rear of the single file whispered and attempted to peek through
the gaps between the saline-dripping branches as they made their way to the mouth of the culvert and the deeper waters
beyond.  Finley remained silent until they neared the end of the sandy embankment that had hidden them from anyone
wishing to surveil this end of Alkali Bight.

"Keep yourself low, Peggy..." the Elf advised and put a hand on her shoulder as she arrived next to the little figure leaning
on the granular breakwater. "...The island is just in front of us and if you look closely, you can see the Guard-house" Finley
hissed as he gazed alongside the famous Witch at the high archipelago that protected the beach from the foulest of weather
and bordered the crescent-shaped bay that the same spellbinder would have to traverse.

"Bugger me" Peggy exclaimed and to make light of his fellow-wader's incertitude, Finley jokingly replied "What... in here?!"

(No, this is not news hot off the press)...But still ongoing.

Quote:NASA’s Operation IceBridge Completes Eleven Years of Polar Surveys (Dec 11, 2019)

For eleven years from 2009 through 2019, the planes of NASA’s Operation IceBridge flew above the Arctic, Antarctic and Alaska, gathering data on the height, depth, thickness, flow and change of sea ice, glaciers and ice sheets.



Designed to collect data during the years between NASA’s two Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellites, ICESat and ICESat-2, IceBridge made its final polar flight in November 2019, one year after ICESat-2’s successful launch.

As the team and planes move on to their next assignments, the scientists and engineers reflected on a decade of IceBridge’s most significant accomplishments.

[History follows]
****
2019: The end of an era

In 2019, IceBridge continued flying in support of ICESat-2 for its Arctic and Antarctic campaigns. The hundreds of terabytes of data the team collected over the decade will fuel science for years to come.

“This data doesn’t get old,” Studinger said. “This data set we have right now will be incredibly valuable going into the future. It’s basically the only data set of its kind that we have.”

“Our data is freely available to anyone,” said project manager Eugenia De Marco. “I believe that, as humans, we are stewards of this planet, and as such, it is our responsibility to take care of it. The first step in that process is to find out what’s going on with the physical world so we can better address the challenges facing our planet. I believe IceBridge and the data it has collected helps answer the question of what’s going on, and that is one of the biggest contributions IceBridge has provided over the years.”

The campaign completed more than 900 flights between Greenland and Antarctica, and more than 150 in Alaska. While some members of the team changed over the decade, some have been with the project since its beginning.

“We had this incredible can-do attitude on both the instrument teams and the aircraft teams,” said Studinger, who was the project’s first lead scientist in 2009 and worked with the mission throughout the decade. “We might have been working really long days for 11 weeks straight in Greenland, but still, at 5 in the morning, people step on the airplane and say hello with a big smile on their face. It really speaks to the people, who for me, were the most enjoyable part – the IceBridge family.”

IceBridge finished its last polar flight on November 20, 2019. The team will complete one more set of Alaska flights in 2020.

“Operation IceBridge took what NASA had already learned how to do with planes at the poles and supersized it, with consistently successful airborne campaigns across the Arctic and Antarctic for eleven years straight,” said MacGregor. “While IceBridge was laser-focused on its primary objective – bridging the gap between ICESat and ICESat-2 – it was sufficiently big and broad in scope that it generated a momentum all its own, too. IceBridge opened the door to new ways of thinking about monitoring the polar regions and enabled numerous unexpected discoveries, and brought new scientists and new data types into the fold.”

Now Germany is experiencing a 19% increase in deaths over the projected base line.

There seems to be relative silence about what appears to be potentially a growing campaign of sabotage on our power grid.

Quote:Attacks on power substations are growing. Why is the electric grid so hard to protect? (Dec 30, 2022)

Even before Christmas Day attacks on power substations in five states in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast, similar incidents of attacks, vandalism and suspicious activity were on the rise.

Federal energy reports through August – the most recent available – show an increase in physical attacks at electrical facilities across the nation this year, continuing a trend seen since 2017.

At least 108 human-related events were reported during the first eight months of 2022, compared with 99 in all of 2021 and 97 in 2020. More than a dozen cases of vandalism have been reported since September.

The attacks have prompted a flurry of calls to better protect the nation's power grid, but experts have warned for more than three decades that stepped-up protection was needed.

Attacks on power stations on the rise

Twice this year, the Department of Homeland Security warned "a heightened threat environment" remains for the nation, including its critical infrastructure.

A USA TODAY analysis of reports that utilities provided to the Department of Energy through August show:

• At least 20 actual physical attacks were reported, compared with six in all of 2021. 
  
• Suspicious-activity reports jumped three years ago, nearly doubling in 2020 to 32 events. In the first eight months of this year, 34 suspicious incidents were reported.
  
• Total human-related incidents – including vandalism, suspicious activity and cyber events – are on track to be the highest since the reports started showing such activity in 2011.
  

Attacks reported in at least 5 states

Since September, attacks or potential attacks have been reported on at least 18 additional substations and one power plant in Florida, Oregon, Washington and the Carolinas. Several involved firearms.

• In Florida: Six "intrusion events" occurred at Duke Energy substations in September, resulting in at least one brief power outage, according to the News Nation television network, which cited a report the utility sent to the Energy Department. Duke Energy spokesperson Ana Gibbs confirmed a related arrest, but the company declined to comment further.
  
• In Oregon and Washington state: Substations were attacked at least six times in November and December, with firearms used in some cases, local news outlets reported. On Christmas Day, four additional substations were vandalized in Washington State, cutting power to more than 14,000 customers.
  
• In North Carolina: A substation in Maysville was vandalized on Nov. 11. On Dec. 3, shootings that authorities called a "targeted attack" damaged two power substations in Moore County, leaving tens of thousands without power amid freezing temperatures.
  
• In South Carolina: Days later, gunfire was reported near a hydropower plant, but police said the shooting was a "random act."
  

It's not yet clear whether any of the attacks were coordinated. After the North Carolina attacks, a coordinating council between the electric power industry and the federal government ordered a security evaluation.

FBI mum on its investigations

The FBI is looking into some of the attacks, but it hasn't said how many it's investigating or where.

Shelley Lynch, a spokesperson for the FBI's Charlotte field office, confirmed the bureau was investigating the North Carolina attack. The Kershaw County Sheriff's Office reported the FBI was looking into the South Carolina incident.
Utilities in Oregon and Washington told news outlets they were cooperating with the FBI, but spokespeople for the agency's Seattle and Portland field offices said they couldn't confirm or deny an investigation.

Could domestic extremists be involved?

In January, the Department of Homeland Security said domestic extremists had been developing "credible, specific plans" since at least 2020 and would continue to "encourage physical attacks against electrical infrastructure."
In February, three men who ascribed to white supremacy and Neo-Nazism pleaded guilty to federal crimes related to a scheme to attack the grid with rifles.

In a news release, Timothy Langan, assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division, said the defendants "wanted to attack regional power substations and expected the damage would lead to economic distress and civil unrest."

Why is the power grid so hard to protect?

Industry experts, federal officials and others have warned in one report after another since at least 1990 that the power grid was at risk, said Granger Morgan, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who chaired three National Academies of Sciences reports.

The reports urged state and federal agencies to collaborate to make the system more resilient to attacks and natural disasters such as hurricanes and storms.

"The system is inherently vulnerable. It's spread all across the countryside," which makes the lines and substations easy targets, Morgan said. The grid includes more than 7,300 power plants, 160,000 miles of high-voltage power lines and 55,000 transmission substations.

One challenge is that there's no single entity whose responsibilities span the entire system, Morgan said. And the risks are only increasing as the grid expands to include renewable energy sources such as solar and wind, he said.

Here's some more details on that ship that made headlines back in 2019.

How a Balkan Drug Cartel Infiltrated the world's largest container Shipping company. A Swiss company. Story is like straight out of a movie.





JP Morgan trafficking billions in cocaine & running child sex blackmail rings lines up perfectly with how I imagine the international banking cartel functions. Raise your hand if you know anything about this, But cannot be questioned due to rEaSoNs.



An explosive new lawsuit — which remains heavily redacted (of course) — alleges JP Morgan "pulled the levers" of Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking operation.

Quote:

• A new lawsuit alleges JP Morgan facilitated Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking scheme.
  
  
• The US Virgin Islands Attorney General also claims the bank covered up its involvement.
  
  
• "Red flag" laws were ignored until after Epstein's death, the lawsuit says.
  

A new lawsuit from the US Virgin Islands Attorney General Denise George accuses JP Morgan Chase of facilitating Jeffrey Epstein's sex-trafficking scheme and covering it up.

"Human trafficking," the lawsuit alleges, was the "principal business" of Epstein's accounts at the bank, but the bank "turned a blind eye" for more than a decade "because of the deals and clients that Epstein brought and promised to bring to the bank."
...
"JP Morgan knowingly, negligently, and unlawfully provided and pulled the levers through which recruiters and victims were paid and was indispensable to the operation and concealment of the Epstein trafficking enterprise," the lawsuit says.

One of Epstein's accounts with JP Morgan, named Southern Trust, didn't perform the "cutting edge consulting services" Epstein claimed. In reality, the lawsuit alleges, it was "a conduit for payment to foreign women, credit cards, airplanes, and other instrumentalities."

Business Insider

Everyone of my generation who played guitar one of the requirements was to learn "Wipe Out"... The Ventures were part of our lives.

Happy New Year you mob from Australia.

Sydney fire works going off as I type.

They are the best,

Good year for Rogue.

Bally